Why access to quality early childhood education and care is a key driver of women’s labour market participation

  by Eric Charbonnier, Analyst, Directorate for Education and SkillsWe are in 1961. JF Kennedy is president and has just designated Eleanor Roosevelt as chairwoman of the new US Commission on the Status of Women: "We want to be sure that women are used as effectively as they can to provide a better life for our people, in addition to meeting their primary responsibility,...

Read More

Is physical health linked to better learning?

by Tracey BurnsSenior Analyst, Directorate for Education and SkillsMahatma Gandhi once said: "it is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver". And indeed, our physical well-being is key to how we live our lives. But while we don't always make the link between our minds and our bodies, physical health is important for learning, too. Children who exercise...

Read More

The importance of learning from data on education, migration and displacement

by Manos Antoninis, Director, Global Education Monitoring ReportFrancesca Borgonovi, Senior Analyst, Directorate for Education and SkillsMigration and displacement are complex phenomena which play an important role in – but can also pose challenges to – development. These phenomena also pose particularly important challenges for education and training systems. Firstly, they...

Read More

What makes for a satisfied science teacher?

by Tarek MostafaAnalyst, Directorate for Education and SkillsTeachers play a vital role in the lives of their students. They impart knowledge, provide pastoral care, act as role models and, above all, create an environment that’s conducive to learning. But teaching is fraught with numerous challenges that could lead to dissatisfaction and ultimately to drop-out from the profession....

Read More

How primary and secondary teachers differ and why it matters

by Marie-Helene Doumet, Senior Analyst, Directorate for Education and SkillsLearning needs vary as we evolve through life. The early years of education set the stage for children’s well-being, cognitive and social-emotional development; young children starting out in the world require stability, reassurance, and encouragement, and need a warm and caring teacher. At primary...

Read More

Shaping, not predicting, the future of students

by Anthony MannSenior Analyst, Directorate for Education and SkillsFootballer Cristiano Ronaldo is reputed to have once said that there’s no point making predictions because nothing is set in stone. It is hard to predict the future, but in education policy at least it is not altogether impossible.We know, for example, from data accumulated over many years that people who exhibited...

Read More

Succeeding with resilience – Lessons for schools

by Johanna Boersch-SupanDirector, Vodafone Germany Foundation – think tank Digitisation is expected to profoundly change the way we learn and work – at a faster pace than previous major drivers of transformation. Many children entering school today are likely to end up working in jobs that do not yet exist. Preparing students for these unchartered territories means that...

Read More

Learning for careers: The career pathways movement in the United States

by Nancy Hoffman, Senior Advisor, Jobs for the FutureBob Schwartz, Senior Research Fellow, Harvard Graduate School of EducationOver the last generation, it has become clear that something has gone awry in how the United States prepares its young people for life. In spite of millions of young people pursuing university education, fewer than one in three young Americans successfully...

Read More

How to prepare students for the complexity of a global society

by Anthony Jackson, Director, Center for Global Education at Asia SocietyAndreas Schleicher, Director, Directorate for Education and SkillsIn all countries, rapidly changing global economic, digital, cultural, and environmental forces are shaping young people’s lives and their futures. From Boston to Bangkok to Buenos Aires, we live today in a VUCA world: volatile, uncertain,...

Read More

Drawing the future: What children want to be when they grow up

by Andreas SchleicherDirector, Directorate for Education and SkillsThe next generation of children will need to create jobs, not just seek jobs. They will draw on their curiosity, imagination, entrepreneurship and resilience, the joy of failing forward. Their schools will help them discover their passions and aspirations, develop their potential, and find their place in society.But...

Read More

What does teaching look like? A new video study

by Anna PonsAnalyst, Directorate for Education and SkillsLooking – literally – at how teachers around the world teach can be a game changer to improve education. The evidence is clear that teachers are what makes the greatest difference to learning, outside students’ own backgrounds. It is widely recognised that the quality of an education system is only as good as the quality...

Read More

What the expansion of higher education means for graduates in the labour market

by Markus SchwabeStatistician, Directorate for Education and SkillsA university degree has always been considered as key to a good job and higher wages. But as the share of tertiary-educated adults across OECD countries has almost doubled over the last two decades, can the labour market absorb this growing supply of skills? At first glance, the answer isn’t encouraging: the...

Read More

Busting the myth about standardised testing

by Tarek MostafaAnalyst, Directorate for Education and SkillsStandardised testing has received a bad rap in recent years. Parents and educators argue that too much testing can make students anxious without improving their learning. In particular, standardised tests that could determine a student’s future – entry into a certain education programme or into university, for example...

Read More